Mom in tears after police handcuff son, 9, at Ottawa school | CTV News. A 9 year old boy handcuffed at school brings an immediate response of shock and horror to most people. The idea of a child with autism being handcuffed isn’t something autism parents want to think about. When we hear about it happening, the first thing we do is imagine that it is our child being handcuffed by the police.

If it was my child, I would be extremely angry. I would be demanding actions being taken against the school and the police. Thankfully, it wasn’t my child. This makes it easier for me to ask myself, “what should have happened in that situation?” My response, “I don’t know. I wasn’t there.” It’s easy for us to sit back and judge actions of others, to make an “emotional high ground stand”. We weren’t there to witness how violent the child’s outburst was. We weren’t there to witness if the other students were in danger. We weren’t there to witness anything.

If you were the police officer in question, what would you have done? Yes, placing a 9 year old autistic child in handcuffs is a scary idea for us parents. What about the other children? This situation had to be scary for them, too. I haven’t read anything that states that the police officer hurt the 9 year old autistic boy. Truly, for the protection of everyone involved, what other actions could the police officer have taken?